Norman MacCaig is best known as a poet associated with the twentieth century Scottish Literary Renaissance. Unlike his friend and contemporary Hugh MacDiarmid, MacCaig’s nationalism was not expressed through the use of Scots as a poetic medium; but though his poetry is in English, he often wrote about the Scottish landscape he loved best, including Assynt in Sutherland, and of his hometown of Edinburgh, as well as poetry inspired by travelling in Europe and North America. His poetic voice is distinctively his own, often characterised by compassion for and a love of the natural world, and also by concision, wit, and a marked influence from his Classical education.
Norman Alexander MacCaig was born on 14th November 1910, in Edinburgh. He was the youngest of four children (his sisters were
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Citation: Bicket, Juliet Linden. "Norman MacCaig". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 03 June 2009 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=2841, accessed 22 November 2024.]
